Intense malt character. Dense biscuity flavor with plenty of sweet caramel and cherries. Mild herbal hop attempts at balancing. Not like any IPA I have tried, way too much malt character, not bad though.

Dense, full-bodied ale and well carbonated. Sticky on the tongue and lips and lacks the dryness I expect in an IPA.

More User Reviews:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww, this beer smells so good even a foot away from the glass at zero hour. What a beer, brewed with a completely reverent lack of respect in good company. I think He'brew's best offering

A: Huge four finger cream head coming out of the glass and a beautiful burnt golden amber red - you can see through it but the color is so beautiful, why would you try?

S: Caramel malts like the smell of the crisped brown sugar apple sugar mix coming from the bottom of a fresh apple pie. It's just stupid beautiful.

T: Huge flavor in all directions with just a kick of booze, which at 10% is well blended. Those toasty brown sugar notes come out with some slight grapefruit and bitterness to keep it all in check. The taste and nose dance as one, taste being the stronger; yet scent is the lead - as she is the more elegant of the two. Every ingredient complements the last, as a whole, everyone takes a bow - and not the just ingredients, effects too. The rye adds the slightest hint of spice and stickiness to bring it all together; like a good director it gives the spotlight to the other roles but you know damn well its the reason this whole thing came together. The bitterness completely compliments the sweetness and the booze slices the body - impeccable!

M: Also wonderful, the sticky malt bill is beefed up by the slick booze coating, then IBU convinces saliva and booze to turn on the young and naive rye - carbonation throws a punch too - leaving only bitterness and alcohol burns in the aftermath. Your mouth tightens around your tongue more and more the longer you prolong your next sip. One of the best beer experiences I've had.

O: What's to say that hasn't been, get this beer. It's great fresh, I can only imagine three years on it... Everything that anything with rye in it should be. It's like a more refined version of the Under Cover Investigation Shut Down ale - I dont love rye, so this gives me faith. F**k yeah! 97

Poured nice dark bronze color. Good head retention.
Very powerful taste. Overwhelmingly thick flavors. Hops up front followed by smooth, sweet malty backbone.
Pleasant aftertaste. Drinks way too easy to be a 10% ABV beer.
Incredible. Local beer store was clearing it out and I bought the last one. Will be on the lookout for more.

A whole lot of head, it nearly jumps over the side on the glass. Crystal clear tawny color. Smells of ripe tropical fruit, pine sap, blood oranges, a little hint of hemp seed oil and cake batter. Smooth and ultra creamy with a hop oil slickness deep inside the full-ish body. Lush malt foundation ranges from heavy caramel to spicy rye, donuts to toasted bread ... pretty damn complex IMO. Hops jump on all of this with a cutting bitterness and a long linger of spicy, citric, thick herbal and tobacco flavor. The bitterness pairs up with the rye to compliment the coming of the alcohol. Oh yes, there is alcohol here and a drops a good amount of warmth and tropical fruit. Finish bittersweet and spicy with more bitterness in the end of it all.

Big and bold, a serious beer ... it would be simple to say that it kicks ass, which it does. By far one of the most enjoyable beers I have had this year.

Poured a nice cloudy amber with a finger's worth of off-white head. Scent was diacetyl and rye malt. The taste began with a hit of sweet malt, blending into rye spiciness nicely as the sip progressed. The hop profile is of grapefruit and pine and was present throughout the sip. Bitterness increases towards the end of the sip and ends with a nice bitter aftertaste that is quite pleasant. Mouthfeel is good, with a low carbonation that makes for easy sipping and let's the flavors of the beer shine through. It's neither too thin nor too thick. An all around excellent rye IPA and a good double IPA.

He'brew Bittersweet Lenny's RIPA has an extremely thick, foamy, beige head, a clear, amber appearance, some tiny streaming bubbles, and a lot of thick lacing left on the glass. The aroma is of pungent, sweet malt and hops, some citrus, hop oil, underlying alcohol, and brown bread. The taste is all that, plus a strong hop bitterness, rye spice, dates, caramel, and candy sugar. Mouthfeel is medium to heavy, and He'brew Bittersweet Lenny's RIPA finishes semi-dry, pleasant, and surprisingly drinkable. This is simply a perfect beer, if there ever is one, and I recommend it in the most strenuous way! Wow!

Here goes my first review. He'Brew RIPA lures you in with it's label. Get one and read the tribute to Lenny Bruce. I picked one up at my favorite gas station/beer haven, PJ's in Sylva, North Carolina. 3 days and 5 bombers later I can tell you the label is just the beginning.

It poors thick and owns one of the most attractive heads I've seen, nearly as dark as the beer sitting up on top like whipped cream. Immediate pleasing aroma of hops fills the room. Hopped Up is my best description. There's an "Obscene" amount of the flower in this brew. Greg at PJ's describes it as "Chewy". You sense the 10% abv immediately by it's warmth not by it's flavor. You can't slam this one. Make sure you have nowhere to be for a while.

Hop Heads everywhere would become addicted immediately. For me it was love at 1st sight. I hope I don't have to drive 700 miles to get my next one.

Flawless brew. Pours a deep bronze color very dark for an IPA very little head, lacing on the glass however is prevalent. Upon each drink you will see a nice stretch of lacing around the glass. Tastes like dessert for me, delicious. Tastes of brown sugar, sweet malty goodness and a strong note of rye bread accompanies the sweetness, perfectly balancing this brew. It's perfection.

The color is a deep maroon/red with some gold or orange tint to it when help to the light. Two fingers of head with some nice retention.

The smell is a big heavy on the alcohol at first some nice hops with a malty sweetness. Some subtle wheat or rye flavoring in the background

The taste is a bit sweet at first but some strong hop flavor makes it's mark on your tongue and stays there some a time. As I write this review it is still lingering on my taste buds reminding me I am tasting a big beer. With each sip the malt pronouces itself then leaves the major character to this beer to be the nice hop bitterness. Always a great taste to a hop fan.

The beer is not light but is a bit medium in body and feels good drinking it on a hot night in July. Does have a bit of a slight sting with each sip to remind you of the 10.% ABV but it warms your mouth just a little but never over does it.

I picked this beer up because of the name but ended up being very pleased with the results. A great Double IPA that has it's own character.

Pours a brown amber color, slightly cloudy with large white head and lacing. lively carbonation, medium body, and long flavor duration. taste of bread like malts and harsh piney hops.smooth creamy texture. probably one of the smoothest beers i've ever had. if you haven't had this beer before you are really missing out. different from most ipa's i've had, this beer is exceptional!!!!

A - beautiful 3 finger head white foam head off my initial pour into my favorite New Belgium Snifter. this beer presents a very deep cherry-oak color.

S - resiny, piney and citrus hops are the central focus in the nose, they come flooding out of the glass. rich caramel malts come running through reeking of cavity-giving sweetness. this beer smells like a dank-ass barleywine w/ some rye bread in the mix as well.

T - spicy and bitter. lots of rye flavor that really shows up as a nice backdrop for the over-the-top-hop insanity.

MF - creamy and lucsious, full bodied. perfection! this one rolls down with ease

D - running and hitting on all cylinders, this one smells, looks, tastes, and goes down like a champ! beware of the 10 percent(can't taste it)
At this price, why am i just now discovering this gem? more i say more!

One tall bomber-sized brown glass bottle wrapped in an event of a label sits proudly on a coaster on my desk, half of its guts splashed in the bowl of my crystal snifter.

In the glass this untamed liquid is aglow with beautiful rich warm ruby tones. Hypnotic carbonation bubbles steadily stream up the sides of the bowl like an army of zombified ants whose only urge is an undeniable compulsion to reach the surface and contribute to the dense ring of sallow foam clinging to the glass left by others before them. This is one of those beers that is almost too visually engaging to drink for fear of ruining the spectacle.

The aromas given off by this beer warrant another five-point rating. There is some subtle spiciness, likely a factor of the rye malt in the grain bill. I'm getting some underplayed West Coast American citrus/grapefruit hop scents and an underlying sweetness.

This brew demonstrates a quiet smoothness throughout that is impressive to say the least. That quality is showcased in the taste and mouthfeel as a light, creamy weightlessness and a flavor that deftly combines such components as cracked peppercorns with light liquid whipping cream and squeezed oranges.

The bitterness and alcohol that earn this beer the name double IPA are in residence, but wrapped up so cozily in the overall "delicacy" of the drink as to be totally approachable even by those who have no sadistic twist of psyche causing them to enjoy alpha-acidic tongue scorchings.

This beer is taste filled American Double/Imperial ale. It has the sort of lack of froth or carbonation which one sometimes sees in beers of this variety. I'm not sure if its coincidence or an omen if one will, but every time I've had a beer with little froth, and a medium+ body it has always been very full of flavor, and surely this ale/beer is no different.

The beer's color is a quite dark sort of a light caramel, and is not very transparent.

The flavor of this beer is very rich, and one might argue, changes depending on how one drinks it.

If one take it into one's mouth as usual and swallows it, one gets a quick splash of the rich flavor of this beer, like someone quickly opening and closing a decorative fan. However, one gets a much different and more varied, and still rich perspective on this beer, by taking it into one's mouth and holding it in the front of one's mouth for a moment, whereby its rich hoppy-rye combo really comes out.

The rye emphasis gives this beer a very fresh taste at the beginning, and perhaps serves as a sort of shell for the hoppiness that this beer possesses. Once one swallows said gulp/sip one is treated more to the hoppy aftertaste that has a real tendency to linger, giving one that unique and tell tale good and hoppy aftertaste.

If I had to compare this beer to other hop-heavy brews per se, I would say that the top notes per se, of the flavor have a really distinctive what I presume is "rye-ness" about them, with the hops forming a solid body of taste, and aftertaste underneath said ryeness per se.

This makes for a really rich and unique "art-beer" if one will, that really showcases a brewers ability to mix fore-tastes and after-tastes in a unique way, which I presume Mr. Bruce/Schneider would be happy to have named in his honor. For, this is really a great and tasty beer.

Poured into a pint glass. Pours clear, dark reddish copper with a tall biege head. The head retains well, dissipating slowly and leaving abundant lacing on the side of the glass. There are strong aromas of sweet roasted malts, rye spiciness, and citrusy and floral hops. It smells earthy. It's such an inviting smell. The flavors up front reflect the big malt presence of this beer, which is sweet and bready. There is that rye spiciness and the hop bitterness that hits on the back end. There are some citrus flavors as well. The alcohol is masked very well in the taste. The body is full and the mouthfeel is creamy. There isn't much carbonation. This is also easy to gulp for such a big ABV beer. Overall, this is an excellent and unique DIPA that I would recommend.

what can I say what more could you want from a beer? I just drank a 22 of it not fully cold and It's still great!!! 10% abv works for me. Its crazy that I'm not looking forward to the Sam Adams Cherry Wheat or the Grolsch bottles now that I drank this first. Hebrew beer...yeah dude.

Poured from a bottle into a glass. Appearance is solid with a golden amber color. The smell will give the drinker a nosefull of malt with a slight hint of honey and caramel. The taste is incredibly difficult to beat with the rye infusion. The sensation of the caramel comes through with the initial taste as well with a delayed aftertaste. This is an incredibly flavorful beer that can only be beat by He'Brew's R.I.P.A on Rye which is much more difficult to find on shelves.

Wonderful toffee, caramel with hint of hop nose. Sweet.malt start to finish, with some hop filtering through. This is truly for people who are bitter enough already and want an IPA with backbone. A treasure.

Pours a clear copper with a mammoth creamy head of tan foam. Very solid and excellent lace. Nose is big pineapple and mango, with some caramel tones. At first blush, flavour seems to be a bit weak in comparison to the nose, but there's definitely some dark sugars, some grapefruit hops and solidly bitter finish. Alcohol comes through as well. Seems to grow on me though, and after a couple of sips I have to revise my initial impression. What this doesn't have is the big, puckery, resinous hoppy bite that many DIPAs have, replacing it instead with a smoother, better balanced flavour. Not at all harsh, but still with some good hoppy flavour. Mouthfeel is on the lighter side of the DIPA range as well - no over-the-top syrupiness. This is as drinkable a DIPA as you're gonna get - smooth, good flavours and not at all rough on the palate.

Thanks to hoppedup for sending this one up my way,a beer contract brewed in NYC but not available in the Buffalo area odd...This poured a brilliant rich deep amber with a large well sustained off white head that left perfect rings of lace as it settled slowly.Loved the aromas it wasnt just a hop blast in your face there was caramel like sweetness anddark fruit underneath the big resiny,piney hop profile.Thick sticky sweet mouthfeel it just coated the mouth in sweetness,to me it tasted like an extremely hoppy American barley wine full lush somewhat sweet and extremely piney and resiny in the finish.Well this one gave me a little bit of a headache this morning as I drank the bomber down knowing this could hurt a little in the morning oh but its a good pain,a damn nice beer.

Taste: The rye comes through here but its not like most rye beers, which I liken to drinking rye bread. The hops balance it very nicely here.

Mouthfeel: not overpowering, but the hops linger more than the rye. Which I'm quite fine with.

Overall: Have now gotten this two nights in a row. I hope I can find this back in WI...

Update: unable to find this back home, so I got another pint at the Yardhouse. Perhaps its because of the Rogue swill I had tonight, but I think I underrated this. Spectacular. I've kept the review to reflect my initial tasting.